Patient safety systems are commonly found in medical and geriatric facilities, and often incorporate adjustable beds. Generally, these beds include a guard rail assembly which can be raised to prevent the patient from falling out of the bed. The guard rail can be lowered to allow the patient ingress and egress from the bed or to provide the care provider unobstructed access to the patient for treatment. The height of some beds can be adjusted to raise the patient to a proper level for treatment by the care provider and the bed can also be lowered for easier patient ingress and egress.
There have been numerous instances in which patients have fallen out of bed, even with the presence of guard rails. In some instances, the care provider may forget to return the guard rails to the raised position after treatment, allowing the patient to roll off the bed. Even where the guard rails are returned to the raised position, a restless patient can easily climb over top of the guard rails and potentially fall to the floor. The situation can be exacerbated in some instances involving height adjustable beds, where the bed height may be inadvertently left in the raised position, resulting in the patient falling from a higher distance off the raised bed. Injuries from these falls can not only be traumatic but also catastrophic, possibly resulting in death.